The Dish: Transatlantic tuck

Celebrate Independence Day with a British twist on American classics

For years, Britain’s main experience of dirty American food came via the TV.
Fortunately, an influx of burgers, soul food, fried chicken and barbecue
dishes has more recently journeyed across the Atlantic and reached our
tables.

It’s food that’s attractive to us because it’s colourful, simple, affordable
and tastes great, but rather than straightforwardly assimilating America’s
recipes and tastes, the best chefs and restaurateurs over here have made
these dishes their own, using quality, local ingredients and British cuts.
Tom Adam’s Pitt Cue Co, which specialises in “low and slow”, smoked southern
American barbecue meat, served with sides of ’slaw, and Nuno Mendes’s
Chiltern Firehouse, with its crab doughnuts and possibly the most vaunted
Caesar salad in the country, are great examples of Britain’s appropriation
of American food. Festivals, such as Manchester and Bristol’s Grillstock,
which pay homage to the Stateside tradition of big, social barbecues with
great hunks of